Will the CHIKUNGUNYA VIRUS become a threat in the U.S.? Scientist says “it’s only a matter of time”. ~ TULAREMIA killing RABBITS in COLORADO ~ FLORIDA reports five HORSES down with EEE ~ WEST NILE VIRUS (WNV) reports from CO, SD & TX ~ RABIES reports from CO & NY.

Global 07/01/14 nationalgeographic.com: by Karen Weintraub – Chikungunya (pronounced chick-un-GOON-ya) has plagued other parts of the world—particularly Asia and Africa—for decades, becoming more prevalent in recent years. But it arrived in the Caribbean only in December and has already infected as many as 250,000 people there. The virus is generally not lethal and can’t pass from person to person. But the pain it brings can be horrible—some who have weathered its wrath have said they wished the virus had killed them. In rare cases, the agony can last for months or even years. Public health officials in the Caribbean are struggling to contain the outbreak, in part because of the difficulty of limiting mosquito breeding grounds and because the disease is so new to the area. Paola Lichtenberger, director of the Tropical Medicine Program at the University of Miami, says she…